Practice Means Entrusting Body and Mind to the Triple Gem

To practice dhamma is to entrust our body and mind to the Triple Gem, to nibbāna, letting it correct and help us — like seeing a doctor. Whatever the doctor asks us to do, we do; the doctor examines and treats us — whether by injection or surgery, that's the doctor's business. The doctor's goal is to free us from disease. Bringing ourselves, body and mind, into the system of the Triple Gem, into the wholesome system, works the same way. We hope for purity, liberation from the impurity that causes trouble and hardship in life.

Our Role Is Simply to Determine Awareness

Our role is simply to determine awareness — relaxed awareness, resting with whichever meditation object we favor and are familiar with, staying pleasantly aware. Normally we're already aware of this and that, but that ordinary awareness brings no benefit. Simply by abiding correctly in determined awareness, the sphere of knowing — the sphere of mindfulness — once it arises, continuously draws pure energy, merit, into the brightness at its center. This energy drives the wholesome system, correcting and refining our elements to purity, dispelling defiling impurities until they are gone, and problems and obstacles grow lighter.

The Stream of Merit Flows Through the Entire Chain of Bodies

As impurity is cleared, what clings and binds us to the coarser dimension disappears, and we are released dimension by dimension into ever finer ones. This is not limited to the human realm — the same effect runs through our entire chain of elements and dhamma bodies. The stream of merit flows from the most refined point, the arahant dhammakāya, all the way through our chain — passing through the non-returner path and fruit, the once-returner path and fruit, the stream-enterer path and fruit, the coarse and refined gotrabhū dhamma bodies, the coarse and refined form-realm brahma bodies, down to the refined and the coarse human body. Merit flows through this entire chain, with effects reaching every realm.

Why the Human Body Is Uniquely Precious

This flow of merit depends entirely on the human body to create it. We should therefore recognize the value of the human body. Our time on earth is limited — it takes real effort to find the time and opportunity to create good causes that benefit our entire chain of elements. All we need do is determine awareness and abide within the wholesome system; the automatic wholesome system takes care of the rest.

Small Actions, Large Consequences Across Every Realm

Our life depends on which system we're in. Falling into the realms of hell, the asura realm, or the animal realm comes from unwholesome karma directing us into small mistakes that still bear fruit — starting small and gradually escalating into something far more serious. Conversely, arising in the heavenly realms — from the Four Great Kings, Tāvatiṃsa, Yāma, Tusita, Nimmānaratī, to Paranimmitavasavattī — all arise from wholesome dhamma developing us little by little as well. If we fail to see the value and benefit, we won't receive the benefit due to us; but if we do see it, what we gain is truly wondrous. Conversely, if we fail to see the danger of the unwholesome, we sink deeper and deeper; but seeing that danger, the wholesome leads us away from misfortune.

Two Essential Factors: Environment and Good Friends

Staying on the wholesome path depends on two essential factors: a suitable environment and good spiritual friends (kalyāṇamitta). How do we know if these are suitable? By whether that person or environment can help us draw in energy conducive to wholesomeness. In saṃsāra, merit — pure energy — is essential to every life. Sustaining a human existence depends on merit sustaining our condition; when merit runs low we fall ill, and when merit runs out we must leave this human body. Both a good friend and a good environment carry a deep background infused with wholesomeness — within the body and mind of a good friend resides wholesomeness, with the Triple Gem and nibbāna shining, superimposed within. The environment is the same — every particle harbors all three natures, but a truly wholesome-supporting environment is one where wholesomeness dominates the others. Without attention to these two factors, it becomes difficult for the Triple Gem and nibbāna to shine brightly within us.

The Ten Bases of Merit-Making and the Ten Perfections

Abiding with the wholesome nature involves many activities, called the ten bases of merit-making: keeping precepts, developing concentration and wisdom, humility, assisting others in their duties, sharing merit, rejoicing in others' merit, listening to and teaching the dhamma, and forming correct views in line with reality. These ten, briefly, are daily activities to be cultivated to draw pure energy — merit — together with subtle attainments and completed resolutions, into our lives. We must also attend to the ten perfections (pāramī), the vehicle of virtue for the long journey through saṃsāra: generosity, morality, renunciation, wisdom, effort, patience, truthfulness, resolution, loving-kindness, and equanimity. Both the ten bases of merit and the ten perfections must be memorized, so we can review and consciously accumulate them — if we cannot remember them, it is as if we never knew them at all. This begins with wisdom born of memory, like sending a child to school — at minimum they must remember, in order to communicate and put it to use.

The Meditation Technique: Sammā Arahaṃ at the Seventh Base

Meditation practice is one method of drawing in energy. Simply determine awareness, staying always aware, never forgetful; the sphere of knowing and the sphere of mindfulness will draw in energy. In determining awareness, find a suitable meditation object for mindfulness to rest on — for instance, resting the mind at the seventh base and reciting: Sammā Arahaṃ 1, Sammā Arahaṃ 2, and onward, with a relaxed, comfortable mind, without tension. All we need is for the sphere of knowing, the sphere of mindfulness, to arise — clear or unclear does not matter; take whatever degree comes, and be content with it. No rushing, no forcing, no pressure.

The Crystal Buddha Image and the Three Sublime Qualities

Sammā Arahaṃ names one who has practiced well and rightly, pure and complete in higher virtue, higher mind, and higher wisdom, together with liberation and the knowledge of liberation, and perfect in the qualities of wisdom, purity, and boundless compassion. As we say his name and recall these sublime qualities, let the feeling take deep root in our heart — this is like planting the seed of aspiration for these same virtues to arise in us in the future. Every time we say his name, his form appears, since form and name are inseparable. His form is the clear crystal Buddha image, pure and radiant, crowned with a lotus bud, brilliant and full of life, seated on a meditation platform within the sphere of dhamma. When he appears, he brings his boundless compassion to refine our elements of seeing, remembering, thinking, and knowing — earth, water, fire, wind, space, and consciousness — to clarity and purity, dispelling the impurity of karmic results, suffering, sorrow, and illness — turning the heavy light, and the light, gone entirely; even misfortune turns to good, and even at the moment of death, one may still go to a fortunate realm.

Radiating Loving-Kindness Over the Place and the World

Having created good causes through developing right mindfulness, it becomes necessary to also benefit others and all beings, since existing within saṃsāra means depending on and helping one another. Let us cultivate a pure love filled with sincere goodwill. Simply by determining loving-kindness, the sphere of loving-kindness — bright and clear — arises, drawing in a continuous stream of pure merit. Its special quality is the power to dispel resentment and irritation from the atmosphere until it vanishes. We extend this heart to cover this place of practice, the village, district, province, country, and the whole world, making it a crystal world — radiant, cool, clean, pure, and warm. May the beings of the world — earthbound devas, sky devas, celestial beings of every heavenly realm, form-realm brahmas, and beings in hell, the asura realm, and the animal realm — be free from suffering and find happiness. We extend this further across the universe, the ten thousand world-systems, the countless infinite universes.

Dedicating Merit and the Closing Aspiration

Having radiated loving-kindness, we dedicate this merit to all beings, including our ancestors, parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles, benefactor-teachers, the devas who help us, and all our karmic counterparts — may we forgive one another and all receive a share of this merit equally. We then settle the mind still within the center of the Triple Gem and the great teacher-preceptors, merging as one with them, sealing our aspiration within the bright sphere of merit. May all this merit gather into sacred, powerful merit, dispelling misfortune and karmic obstacles, granting the Eye of Dhamma, thorough penetration into Vijjā Dhammakāya, the three knowledges, the eight higher knowledges, the six supernormal powers, the four discriminations, the eight liberations, and the fifteen conducts in full, together with good health, long life, and the strength to build perfections until reaching the end of the Dhamma — closing with the chant of homage to the Buddha.